2月1日 神的呼召

基督差遣我，原不是为施洗，乃是为传福音。（林前一17）

保罗在此指明，神的呼召是传福音；不过要知道保罗所说的福音究竟是什么意思。福音就是主耶稣基督救赎的实在。我们很容易把成圣作为我们传道的最终目的，然而保罗却把个人的经历作为例证，而非结果。神从来没有吩咐我们去传扬得救或成圣；他乃吩咐我们高举耶稣基督（参约十二32）。我若说耶稣基督在救赎中受苦，为要使我成为圣徒，这便是曲解圣经。耶稣基督在救赎中受苦，乃是要拯救全人类，使他们无瑕疵地重新活在神的宝座面前。我们能够经历救赎，便足以证明救赎之实在大能，可是这仍旧非救赎的终极目标。神若像人一样，对我们日夕要求得救，要求成圣，他将感到多么心烦与厌倦哩！我们朝夕为自己求这求那，求把我拯救出来！真是消耗了神许多的精力！一旦我们触摸到福音的真正意义时，就不会再为个人微不足道的事去烦神了。

保罗一生唯一的愿望就是传福音。他面对创痛、误解、逼迫而不退后，唯一的原因就是这些事保守他对福音忠心不移。

祈祷◆主啊，你最清楚知道，今天早上我何等需要振奋！愿我所说，能让人听闻你荣耀的声音、看见你慈爱的面容，和感受到你那无处不在的灵。

February 1 The Call of God

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel . . . —1 Corinthians 1:17

Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.

The one passion of Paul's life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason— these things kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.